Pheasant Hunting Firsts

Eleven-year-old Zach Feather can’t wait to go on his first pheasant hunting trip, especially when he learns his parents have a surprise for him—a new bird dog! The family travels across the state from the Cherokee reservation in eastern Oklahoma to hunt pheasant on a relative’s ranch. There are more surprises—including a rattlesnake encounter—in store for Zach on his first hunt. Along the way, he learns that hunting is about more than just finding pheasants. It’s also about patience and the things in life that are most important—hunting with his dog and his family.

Author Biography

Art Coulson is an award-winning journalist and was the first executive director of the Wilma Mankiller Foundation in Oklahoma. His first children’s book, The Creator’s Game: A Story of Baaga’adowe/Lacrosse (Minnesota Historical Society Press, 2013), told of the deep spiritual and cultural connections of Indigenous American people to the sport of lacrosse. Art still plays traditional Cherokee stickball, an original version of lacrosse, when he is visiting friends and family in the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma. Art lives in Apple Valley, Minnesota, with his wife and two daughters. Johanna Tarkela is a digital artist who loves playing with strong, atmospheric light and shadow in her realistic-style work. Born and raised in Finland, she spent a lot of her childhood outdoors and surrounded by the beautiful Nordic nature, which reflects in her favorite themes to draw. She has been drawing since she was a young child and has worked on many children’s books. Johanna later attended university to study illustration in England, where she currently resides and works as a freelance illustrator, represented by Lemonade Illustration Agency.